1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a label for sticking onto a container for a liquid drug and to such a container.
2. The Prior Art
In medicine, liquid drugs that are intended to be administered by means of injection, are transported and handled in transparent containers, so-called ampoules or vials, finally being removed from said containers. Such containers are usually produced from glass, have a cylindrical circumferential surface and an upper side through which an injection needle can pass. A certain quantity of liquid is removed from the container either once or several times depending on the type of application and the drug selected. All these containers have to be inscribed by means of suitable labels in order to identify the precise content, its composition, concentration and/or quantity, etc.
These types of containers often only contain a few milliliters of liquid in the filled state. Whilst multi-dose containers, which are intended for the multiple removal of, in each case, a part quantity of the liquid, typically contain about 10 ml of liquid, single-dose containers for one-off use are clearly even smaller and contain only approximately between 1 and 3 ml. On account of the small quantity of liquid required, the diameter of such single-dose containers and the circumference of the cylindrical outside surface thereof is relatively small, and through the small circumference of the cylindrical outside surface, the surface that can be written on, on which all the information for identifying the container content (including trade names, composition, quantity or concentration specifications, barcode, expiry dates, any warnings or further specifications) is to be accommodated on the label, is very small.
In addition, it would be desirable for these types of labels to have a detachable label part that could be stuck onto the syringe or onto the actual circumferential face thereof directly after a syringe has been filled with the liquid in order to identify the syringe content. On this label part now attached to the syringe, for example, the dose removed or other data identifying the individual treatment can be noted. To this end, inscription surfaces that can be written on subsequently by hand should be provided on the detachable label part to be attached to the syringe in order to identify the syringe individually until it is administered.
Such a detachable label part for the syringe, in this case called a spare label, reduces the remaining surface available for the entire label, on which surface the specifications for identifying the liquid container itself, namely the ampoule or the vial, are to be accommodated.
The lack of space this generates for the specifications to be accommodated on the label turns out to be even more drastic if the ampoule or the vial is a container for a single dose; in this case the outside circumference of the container turns out to be even smaller.
In particular in the case of labels for identifying containers of such drugs that are high risk (for instance in the case of anaesthetics or heparins)—in particular where there are administering errors on account of confusing names, compatibility problems or wrong dosage—the label surface that is conventionally available is often insufficient in order to accommodate the administering and safety instructions for the medical personnel on the label with the desired clarity, type size and/or detail.